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Anglican Overseas Aid joins Government Humanitarian Response

Anglican Overseas Aid has been selected to be part of the Federal Government's Australian Humanitarian Partnership

June 16 2017Anglican Overseas Aid has been selected to be one of the aid agencies involved in the Australian Humanitarian Partnership, which aims to rapidly respond to global crises.

The Partnership was announced by the Australian Government at a launch in Brisbane on Friday June 16.

Anglican Overseas Aid is a member of the Church Agencies Network Disaster Operation (CAN DO) consortium, which was selected to be in AHP.

CAN DO comprises consortium leader Caritas Australia, Act for Peace, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency Australia, Anglican Board of Mission, the Australian Lutheran World Service, Transform Aid International (Baptist World Aid Australia) and UnitingWorld.

“CAN DO enables us to pre-position, prepare and resource churches to be first responders,” said Anglican Overseas Aid chief executive Bob Mitchell.

“We will leverage our strong, lifesaving programs to help the most vulnerable in these communities.”

The AHP is a five-year $50 million commitment from the Australian Government which brings together six organisations - Care, Caritas/CAN DO, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision - to rapidly respond to global crises.

The AHP has a particular focus on Pacific preparedness and resilience work.

Speaking at the AHP’s launch in Brisbane, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the partnership will increase the capacity of Pacific organisations and communities to manage crises.

“We will help to ensure Pacific nations are more resilient to disasters, and can more quickly rebuild and return peoples’ lives to normal,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said at the AHP launch.

CAN DO Chair, Anthony Sell, said the network members will use their extensive reach of church partners throughout the Pacific to reduce the disaster risk of highly vulnerable urban and remote island communities.

“As individual agencies we already respond well to natural disasters. By joining together into a strong network, we can make an even greater difference, especially to our vulnerable neighbouring Pacific communities,” Mr Sell said.